Thinking out loud

Well the loose exhaust closer on the vertical head wasn't the cause of my starting problem. Bike is still difficult to start. Though I've gotten a better picture of the situation with yesterday's open airbox tuning. Definitely not an air and fuel problem. Must be spark/electrical.

Previously I tested spark by connecting one coil at a time to a spare plug, and grounding the plug on the engine case. Tiny spark visible.

My bike is a 2003 999, but the factory shop manual I have is for a 2006 749. Why? Basically these manuals are virtually impossible to come by, and the ONE and only source I found doesn't carry base model 999 manuals. Normally this isn't a problem for most things, as all of the procedural info is identical. However this descrepancy could make a difference in troubleshooting my starting problem.

Today I tested my coils. According to the 749 manual, the resistance across pins 1 & 15 should be 650 +/- 50 mili-ohms. This is one case where the discrepancy between the 749 and 999 manuals could make a difference. According to their respective parts catalogs, the 06 749 uses a different coil from the 03 999. Therefore, the resistance specified in the manual won't necessarily apply to my bike.

HOWEVER, further investigation reveals that every year from 2003 through 2006, Ducati changed the 999 coils, ending up with the 2006 999, which uses identical coils to the 2006 749. Ducati has been known to supercede existing parts, even within the same model year (a fact which I experienced first hand trying to get frickin' pulley tensioner nuts, which were superceded nearly half a dozen times). I will have to visit the dealer with my findings, and see if the updated coil for the 2003 999 is indeed the same as the 2006 749.

Back to my coil test. So if the updated 03 999 = 06 749 coil, and the manual spec for the 749 coil resistance is the same for the 999, then my coils might be shot based on the readings I got. The problem is I can't say for sure because my multimeter doesn't read into the mili-ohms range; it rounds to the nearest tenth ohm. So a reading of 650 mili-ohms looks like 000.7 ohms. Not very helpful. Anyway the reading I got for my coils were 000.8 ohms. I will probably have to invest in a multimeter that reads low enough to get a meaningful reading. Much better than just blindly dishing out for new coils.

In the end though, all this may be moot. My friend Mark called and told me about a starting problem he had with his 998, which had similar symptoms. The culprit was a corroded connector. So before going any further, my next step will be to trace all my connectors.